Fwd: Picture

First Valentines Father-Daughter Dance 2015

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Happy New Year, very late..

Well, American New Year we are late, but Chinese New Year Greetings are early. We are getting ready to decorate the house for CNY this week and maybe try making dumplings this year. We are going to make a trip to Jungle Jim's. 2015 is the year of the Goat. The other day we discussed the fact that Cincinnati doesn't have a large Chinese community and that maybe we should travel to other cities like DC or Chicago where they have more authentic Chinese activities during Chinese New Year.  This year we will be lucky enough to be in CT with adoption friends during CNY.  The girls lived in the orphanage for about 8 months together, Emma was the last to leave, the youngest of the group.

Christmas was all the things it usually is. Possibly the  last Christmas for believing in Mr. Claus and sitting on his lap.  She looked huge on his lap this year.  There was a line of questioning that led me to believe Emma was trying to catch me in a lie about Santa and she tried to trip me up, indicating that Mom was Santa.  

Prek2 is going ok, we have teacher conferences in a few weeks. She is very interested in learning, just not the being more still part and realizing she is not in charge.   Emma says school is boring so Doug taught her how to spell boring she says it so much.  She is very interested in knowing how words are spelled, but the connection to reading a word isn't present; can sound the letter out, but can't put them together for reading.  E. really doesn't want to talk about school or anything else you ask her. It's the age, conversation led by an adult is like a tooth extraction.

Gymnastics is going phenomenal.  With the coaches help, we found a technique to help her focus better in class.  During these conversations, they  realized she is the youngest child they have in all their BLAST sessions, therefore developmentally in regards to listening and focus, she is on par. They forgot that because of her strength.  Emma has done so well the past few weeks, they promoted her to Pre-Team Gymnastics tonight.  Pre-Team is 2 hours sessions every week.  Emma is SO excited, but is going to be exhausted.  This Thursday will be her last swim lesson due to scheduling conflict with Pre-Team.